Medicine and Charity in Georgian Bath : A Social History of the General Infirmary, 1739-1830

A close and systematic analysis of the General Infirmary at Bath, which was founded in 1739 to grant lepers and cripples, and other indigent strangers access to the spa waters. Four main themes are pursued in order to locate the hospital within its economic, socio-cultural and political contexts: arrangements for management and finance under the conditions of a prospering commercial economy; the rewards and restrictions experienced by the physicians and surgeons who donated their professional services free of charge; the changing moral economy of charitable donors and recipients; and the construction of an integrated social and political elite around the physical and moral rehabilitation of the sick and poor. The example of Bath - a stylish resort whose visitors and residents exemplified the dynamics of fashionable philanthropy - is used to open up issues of significance to our understanding of Georgian Britain as a whole.